College Park, Md. October 5, 2005 The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced that the schools Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship has expanded its Capital Access Network (CAN), a program that facilitates funding relationships between angel investors and regional start-ups. The Dingman Center has formed a number of key partnerships and has planned new activities which will provide entrepreneurs with greater resources and opportunities to secure funding. New developments include:

Beijing, China - September 14, 2005 Today the University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business, a leading provider of Executive MBA (EMBA) programs in China, named 10 finalists in the Robert H. Smith School of Business China Business Plan Competition. The finalists will have the rare opportunity to present their business ideas before a panel of international venture capitalist (VC) judges and compete for a total of US$45,000.

College Park, Md. July 25, 2005   The Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland today announced that Dan Goodman, CEO of Zernike USA, has been appointed technology commercialization fellow at the schools Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. The Dingman Center is a nationally-recognized, leading entrepreneurial center that assists students and regional entrepreneurs with expertise, resources and funding. In his new role, Goodman will work with Dingman Center scholars and local companies to commercialize technologies from within the university community.

College Park, Md. July 18, 2005   The Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland today announced that Adam Lehman, president of Rock Ridge Ventures, will join the schools Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, a nationally-recognized, leading entrepreneurial center that assists students and regional entrepreneurs with expertise, resources and funding, as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

Twenty aspiring Chinese entrepreneurs are one step closer to building the businesses of their dreams. The Robert H. Smith School of Business announced the semi-finalists of the Robert H. Smith School of Business China Business Plan Competition at the Zero2IPO semi-annual Venture Capital Conference in Beijing on July 14, 2005. The entrants were judged on criteria that included their business plan feasibility, clarity, conciseness, value proposition and competitive positioning.

College Park April 4, 2005 Shoppers visiting Washington DC now have a great, new resource for upscale shopping, dining and activities. SHOPDC, a magazine owned and managed by Rawlins Media. The publications launch this month follows a $7,000 investment from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, to second-year MBA student and SHOPDC founder, Zoey Rawlins.

The entrepreneurship program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business is ranked among the top 13 nationally in the April 2005 issue of Entrepreneur magazine. For the third consecutive year and since the surveys inception, the magazine has included the Smith School prominently among its annual list of the best 100 collegiate entrepreneurship programs in the United States.

College Park - February 14, 2005 The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland announced today that it has invested $10,000 in start-up funding to Hook & Ladder Brewery, a student-run business founded by second-year Smith MBA student Matthew Fleischer. The investment is part of the seed stage funding the center makes available to student-run, start-up companies.

Nearly 20 years after the launch of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, a new strategy launches to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in the Smith community. Pitch Dingman builds on the Dingman business development process of Ideation, Assessment, Implementation, and Iteration by creating a regular forum where aspiring entrepreneurs can pitch their business ideas to a panel of experienced scholars.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, has won the 2003 national Outstanding Entrepreneurship Course of the Year award from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) for its groundbreaking course in which MBA students work with the $20-million New Markets Growth Fund (NMGF). The course, New Markets Growth Fund Practicum, was unanimously selected as the winner at the 18th Annual USASBE Annual Conference in Dallas on Jan. 18, 2004.